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Cal-Hab
The Caledonian Habitation Zone is the irradiated remains of Scotland, which for years was under Brit-Cit control. The largest settlement is Glascal, while the Strathmeg conurbation has fallen into decay. Cal-Hab is also the home of trashzine artist Kenny Who?. The population is famed for violence, deep-frying everything, drunkenness and penny-pinching - Prog 1540 revealed it has only two charities and one of them is campaigning for an increase in miserly behaviour. History Scotland had an oil boom in the 1980s that saw dozens of new townships built around the coast; when the oil ran out, the townships became destitute and the former oil men turned to the sport aeroball. The Flying Scotsmen aeroball team had a reputation as the toughest in the world.2000 AD progs 12 Sometime before 2050, Scotland had become independent. The Flying Scotsmen would battle the Harlem Heroes.2000 AD prog 12-15 The trauma of the 2070 Atomic Wars caused the Scottish to regress to an apocryphal Highlander past. These "Caledonian Wastes" were looked down on as a lawless wasteland by the new global community, and it was used as a dumping ground for toxic and nuclear waste (particularly the Dounreay Contam-Zone).Cal-Hab Justice Part 3, Megazine 2.12 In order to bring the country to order, Brit-Cit set up the Song-in-the-Sky satellite network to bombard the locals with subliminal messages, making them more controllable (and more 'comedy stereotype'). The Baxter Genepool project, started in the 2080s, began to create a breed of future Judges - ones designed, similar to the genetically altered barbary apes at Gib Rock, to help mentally pacify the population. Finally, the newly established Cal-Hab and its Judges were accepted into the world community in 2101: once again under the rule of Brit-Cit.Megazine 2.64 to 2.66: "Cal-Hab Justice: Family Snapshot" Cal-Hab had been running assassination Ranger teams at the turn of the century, each headed by a War Chieftan. In 2103, after a mercenary team had slaughtered five Calhab towns in response to the Partick Thistle Uprising, Ranger Team Delta under Andy Dunn tracked the culprits down south to the Canterbury ruins and wiped them out. The Chieftan In the 2110s, hogmanay was a day of general peace and calm.Calhab Justice: Hogmany There was a large amount of nationalism and desire for Cal-Hab to be independent in the 2110s, but the whisky clan factions spent too much time fighting each other to be a credible resistance. (However, in 2129, Dredd and a Brit-Cit Judge remarked that Cal-Hab had been mostly independent for a century, which had not stopped hard-line nationalist paramilitaries from trying to separate the state completely from Brit-Cit - literally, with explosives.Prog 1450) The New Old Bailey sent a quota of rookies up north on six-month tours. The locals, both citizen and Judge, loathed them as interlopers and outsiders; the Judges would give the rookies all the dirty jobs if they could get away with it, while the locals would hurl abuse at them as a symbol of all Justice Department. This was known by the New Old Bailey, who considered this a way of toughening up their rookies. Judge Dredd Mega-Special 1993: The Quota The local Judges, if good, would be headhunted for Brit-Cit and they had so few psis, they only had one empath in Judge Schiehallion. (When he wouldn't risk himself and a civilian died in 2115, Chief Inspector James Bryson deliberately destroyed the report rather than lose Schiehallion)Cal-Hab Justice: Casualty In 2114, the Campbell and Abercromby whiskey clans began peace talks and the Judges agreed to supervise. It turned out the Campbells had stolen the Stone of Destiny from Brit-Cit (who implied to CI Bryson that they meant nuke Cal-Hab if it got too unruly) and were planning to kill Chief Banger Abercromby & unite all the clans to take possession over Cal-Hab. Judge Ed MacBrayne stopped the plot but broke the Stone in the process.Cal-Hab Justice A 'terrorist attack' was launched on Dounreay in 2114 and armed Judges fought off the cybernator attack - actually the cover story for mercenaries hired by a South-Am City company that wanted Dounreay out of the energy market. MacBrayne was hospitalised stopping the plant from being blown up, while South-Am denied all knowledge.Cal-Hab Justice: Dounreay ran in 1993 (2115) but explicitly references "South-Am Cit", putting it before Judgement Day In 2215, WarTech considered supplying the whiskey clans with more advanced weaponry in the assumption of a profitable civil war.Dredd: The Chieftan In 2116, empath Judge Schiehallion went mad and became a conduit for supernatural entities that killed hundreds. After being shot, he rose from the deadFamily Snapshot and the Justice Department lied that he had actually stopped the attacks. Unknown to everyone, he was still mentally unstable. When being honoured for his 'heroics' he revealed the Song-in-the-Sky satellite to the public and then destroyed it. The absence of the satellite's signals caused Cal-Hab to descend into tribal violence, just as had happened when similar control methods had failed at Gib Rock, and the Judges were either massacred or formed into their own tribe, the Knights of the Templar. A Brit-Cit Psi-squad led by "Brit-Cit Brute" was sent in but defeated, and eventually Schiehallion covered most of Cal-Hab in a huge psychic storm known as the Flux, which has left a large part of the territory beyond anyone's control or comprehension.Cal-Hab Justice: False Dawn, Megazine 2.67-72 Since then, most of Cal-Hab seen has been the rural outskirts. There is still reference to "Cal-Hab law" and there is a Ness International Hoverport and direct zoom trains to Mega-City One. In the wilds outside of the habzone proper lived the "wild Scotties", who only enter to forage illegally and aren't protected by the law; some of those tribes lived in Orkadia (future Orkneys). In 2120, Mega-City One's ballet troupe went to the Cal-Hab Festival but their hover transport crashed in the Strathmeg Wastes, now a lawless ruin overrun by mutant ganglords. Judge Dredd went to rescue them from the cannibalistic Headbanger tribe, using Mean Machine to challenge their leader McBean to a butting contest. By the end of it, Dredd was officially the 'new McBean' and ordered the tribe to stay out of trouble (which he assumed they wouldn't). Prog 1084 The corrupt Laird McClearance in northern Cal-Hab began to run hunts of the wild Scotties for rich Mega-City tourists, and used this as a way of gathering up some to sell for body-brokers. In 2123, an Orkadian tribe was able to visit the city and, with Judge Dredd's help, expose the trade - and then burned down Castle McClearance and left the laird to die at sea.Progs 1234-6 Chief Inspector McKinty appeared at the 2126 Global Justice Summit, flying in on the Pride of Caledonia shuttle.Jihad Doctor "Saint" Byron Ambrose carrying out charity work for destitute wild Scotties in the 2120s until he was murdered and replaced by PJ Maybe. The serial killer would use this reputation to become Mayor of Mega-City One. Judges The area has its own semi-autonomous Judge force, run by a Chief Inspector. The Judges have added a Celtic helmet and kilt to the British uniform. The Judges themselves were genetically tweaked to be immune to low-level radiation. Like Murphyville and Brit-Cit CID Judges, they were able to have families lives, go home at night, and drink. Traditionally, all judicial decisions are made from Brit-Cit and the best Scottish Judges were head-hunted for Brit-Cit roles, leaving the Cal-Hab Judges demoralised. Even Chief Inspector Bryson was looking forward to his upcoming Brit-Cit pension and being taken from "this hellhole".Hogmanay As previously stated, Cal-Hab had barely any Psi Judges. Cal-Hab Judges were sent to Luna-1 until 2126.Eclipse by James Swallow Due to the small size of the area, Cal-Hab Judges could be personally known to locals and perps and vice versa. Many pubs are "Judge Free" zonesMegazine 2.63 - "Cal-Hab Justice: McTash". Post-2116 Cal Hab still possesses a Judge force but it ignores the plight of the wild Scotties. In 2126, Chief Inspector McKinty appeared as part of a separate delegation to the Global Justice Summit instead of with the Brit-Cit group. Jihad audio drama Depiction Cal-Hab has had multiple cameo appearance's in the stories of Wagner and Alan Grant, nearly all of which are played for laughs and which focus on Scottish humour. Jim Alexander's Cal-Hab Justice, on the other hand, was often quite grim and focused on political allegories for mid-90s Scottish issues; the city-state was also shown to be under heavy Brit-Cit control. Gordon Rennie's "Judge Dredd: Tartan Terrors" (#1540) played Cal-Hab for laughs but in a slightly more aggressive manner, such as introducing penny-pinching as a Cal-Habber trait (an old Scottish stereotype); it also referred to Cal Hab as having political independence for a century. In the letters page for #1547, editor Matt Smith (via Tharg the Mighty) openly admitted that Gordon Rennie was ignoring Cal-Hab Justice. Cal-Habbers are usually written with heavy, phoenetic accents and Scottish slang, making them indecipherable for foreign characters. (This is a traditional way of writing Scottish characters in Scottish comics, as seen in Oor Wullie and The Broons) "Harlem Heroes" made note of the contemporary oil boom and the calls for Scotland to be independent on the back of it - the strip has been grandfathered into Dredd history, making Scotland independent sometime in the late 20th or early 21st century. References Category:Locations